Dad's agony at 'worst day of my life' after finding son hanged after 'cocaine binge'

A DAD has relived the "worst day of his life" when he found his son hanged after a cocaine binge.

Andrew Robottom revealed how he desperately begged son Tom to breathe after finding his body just 15 minutes after the young man was plunged into a low from the drug.


Taking to social media today, the devastated dad, from Nuneaton, said he had found his son yesterday – trying in vain to save him.

In the heart wrenching post, he said: "Today is the worst day of my life.

"This morning I found my beautiful boy had hanged himself, any parents worst nightmare."

He added: "I went to see if he was OK only to have to push with all my might the door open and lift my boy off the floor.

"(As I tried to) resuscitate him until the paramedics came I was begging my son to breathe.

"The services worked so, so hard to save my boy , but they couldn’t. The cocaine won!"

Andrew said his son's death had now left not only him devastated, but his two beautiful daughters who would now grow up with out a dad.

He said: "I’m writing this so it’s out there how cocaine destroys lives,

"I don’t know how I will go on living without my son but I have a beautiful daughter and granddaughters to think of."

The social media post has since been shared thousands of times after Andrew said he wanted people to stop any other parents going through what he was going through.

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He also hit out at the drug's appearance to have "street cred", adding: "Despite all the publicity there isn’t any support out there for mental health issues."

More than a million Brits have put their lives on the line by using it in the last year, with many seeing it as a drug without consequences – even though experts warn it can trigger depression, paranoia and suicidal thoughts.

More than one in ten British adults have tried cocaine, double the EU average and use among young people is surging, with 20 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds taking it in the past year.

The drug can have a profound impact on users’ mental health, as the devastating deaths of Love Island’s Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradonshow.

Both had traces of cocaine in their systems when they killed themselves.

Deaths linked to the drug have quadrupled since 2011, while hospital admissions for coke-fuelled mental health conditions in England have trebled in the last decade.

Worryingly, while many people use cocaine because it dulls the effect of alcohol so they can drink more, many of these deaths take place under just those circumstances.

Mixing alcohol and cocaine produces a toxic chemical called cocaethylene, which is deadlier than the drug on its own and also dangerously increases heart rate and blood pressure.

Am I addicted to cocaine? The signs and symptoms of addiction

Cocaine is highly addictive and what can start out as a one-off can quickly turn into a habit.

Regular use of the drug changes the way the brain releases dopamine – a chemical in the brain that makes you feel happy.

But the high is short-lived so often users will take more to feel the desired effects again.

Over time, the body and brain can become too used to cocaine that it builds up a tolerance, which means you have to take more to feel the same high.

If you recognise any of the following behaviours in yourself, it might mean you've developed an addiction to cocaine:

  • You're taking more of the drug to feel the effects
  • When you stop or reduce your dosage, you feel agitated, restless and depressed
  • You're struggling to cut down or control how much you take, even if you try to
  • You spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to get cocaine
  • You're disregarding family, friends and work in favour of taking cocaine
  • You know the damage it's doing to you, but you can't stop taking it

Ian Hamilton, a senior lecturer in addiction and mental health at the University of York, said that there are well evidenced links between cocaine and acute psychosis in young people and adults.

He added: "There is a problem with increasing purity of cocaine which I think is catching out young naive users who are at risk of overdosing as this misjudge how much of the drug they should use."




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